Added G+ page and rel="publisher" and lost 80% of traffic OVERNIGHT

[1script]

This from three days ago. Large forum site but not terribly good G traffic to begin with - only about 500/day UVs, been like that for a couple of years already. Slow but steady.

September 3rd - I'm starting a new G+ page for that site, adding link rel="publisher" to the header of all content pages and "Follow on G+" image button (both via template, so immediately sitewide). Why? FB traffic started to play a small but useful role and I just wanted to experiment with G+. There are 2 posts on that G+ page so far, all made that day. One has a link back to site (is that a crime? LOL)

September 4th - traffic drops to 90/day UVs and stays there.

Coincidence?


Mods Note: Keep your responses professional and productive. Off-topic posts and generic complaining will be deleted without notice.

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[edited by: goodroi at 7:56 pm (utc) on Sep 6, 2013]

[Pjman]

That sounds way too quick. I would hange it back and give it a week to see if there is a recovery.

[Panthro]

I would say coincidence, esp given the movement people are reporting in the September Google SERPs thread.

[JesterMagic]

I agree with Panthro see the September thread.

[1script]

Thanks, guys. I guess it makes sense that the change was simply way too quick. Still, the coincidence was uncanny, especially considering that G+ page was the only change made on that site in several months (other than adding content of course). I'll keep watching it, will post here if anything more definitive turns up.

[caluca]

Hi 1script, has traffic revert back to normal ? Just curious to know :-)

[1script]

@caluca: nope, still down. Under other circumstances I would have submitted a RR but in this case I feel like an idiot putting words like "I added a Google+ button and my traffic went down. I have since recognized my mistake and removed the Google+ button. Please revoke the penalty" into my RR. LOL. Well, this is almost 100% certainly an algo demotion, so an RR would be an exercise in futility, but it would probably be one of the funniest they read :)

[Kelowna]

September 4th - traffic drops to 90/day UVs and stays there.

Coincidence?

I would say yes to coincidence. I have done this many times, it has never made any impact positive or negative.

I think google is still playing with the algo knobs, some of my sites shoot up, and others drop, rinse repeat every few days. Does not seem to have anything to do with +1 profiles.

From the Sept 4th date you give it sounds more like you have tripped a filter because something is over optimized, inbounds or onpage. I had a bunch of sites I had to change around that date. Even if you don't touch your site, and google changes, then your site can fall within what the algo considers over doing it. Compare your site to those ranking at the top to know for sure.

[caluca]

LOL, yep not a good idea.
On top of your penalty, you would just trigger a manual review !

[1script]

@Kelowna: well, yes, I would be shocked if this had a direct impact. I did, however, think that perhaps adding the G+ code (and I had to move some elements of the page around to fit the icon) might have changed HTML code just enough to trigger some sort of a filter or re-crawling / re-processing. So, I kept the button up (still there) as to not make any more html code changes. Does not seem to make any difference.

[Kelowna]

might have changed HTML code just enough to trigger some sort of a filter

As I see from the serps... Google is not that smart.

Adding removing keywords, or any words, text..., onpage or inbounds makes a difference, moving a bit of code should not do anything